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As our societies functional literacy has declined we have lost words that gave us nuanced shades of meaning.

"Experience with" meaning, "Have dealt with this personally, first hand" gradually became, "has been near or studied and feels comfortable claiming authority on that basis." So the new compound word "Lived experience" was created to allow us to still use the first definition reliably.

Many times people who have "experience with" a topic have really "studied" it.



> As our societies functional literacy has declined [Citation badly needed]

Words change. That doesn't mean everyone is getting stupider. In fact the more literate people are, the faster words are likely to change, since the more situations they'll be put to use in.


> Citation provided https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy#:~:text=by....

Functional literacy means more than simply knowing specific vocabulary words. It includes the shared knowledge to use and understand idioms and cultural references.

Needing to coin a new expression to replace a word we already have a perfectly good word for seems to be a symptom of poor literacy. I suppose the chronic dishonesty and doublespeak involved in corporate jargon could be the source of this phenomenon instead.




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